2021 Saint-Aubin Village

Many moons waxed and waned since I had tasted with Pierre-Yves Colin. In fact, the last time we tasted together in Burgundy was prior to the opening of his new winery near the industrial park in Chassagne. A mixture of illness and COVID prevented us from meeting, so there was absolutely no way that this round of tastings would pass without a run through his 2021s and those of his wife, Caroline, whose wines are vinified in the same facility. As welcome rain lashed the vines outside, Colin spares a thought for his drenched workers and explains the season in question.

“The season started badly because of the frost. We used some candles and wind fans, so we had vineyards with no damage to a maximum 60% loss, the top crus more affected than those at the bottom. We had even more work in the vineyard compared to a normal vintage. It was a lot for not a great deal of fruit. The challenge was to keep the motivation. There was more mildew than oïdium, especially in June and the beginning of July, so we did a couple more treatments than usual. The fruit was clean when I began picking on 17 September and had good acidity. There was first- and second-generation fruit, the latter giving the acidity with around 12% alcohol and chaptalized 0.6%-0.8% later on. Most of the wines will go through 100% malo, though some have not finished, and I expect some cuvées will probably not complete their malo by bottling. We don’t have any temperature control in the cellar to expedite the malo, and we don’t really want to do that. The whites will be bottled probably around April 2023 to achieve two years’ maturation for all our wines. I don’t like to bottle too close to the end of the malo as it makes the wines fragile and prone to premature oxidation. That is why we have a spacious building to accommodate two vintages in barrel and gain flexibility in terms of bottling. Some crus have been blended together because of the small volume. Since 2007, a majority is matured in 350-liter barrels with 30-40% new oak from Chassin and François Fréres cooperages. There are no négoce bottlings in 2021 except the Meursault and Corton-Charlemagne where I work that land [though Pierre-Yves mentions the latter is a ‘fragile’ contract that could end at any moment]. In 2022, it’s the same, as I want to wind the négociant side of the business down.”

This is a marvellous set of whites from a master craftsman. They reflect the growing season and translate its ups and downs, so I would not go out and claim they are his “best ever”. Conversely, there is not a single cru where I did not think: “I’d like a case of that in my cellar”. They are not what would call steely tensile Chassagnes, the oak regime lending them a little more rondeur, not unlike fellow “two winter” vignerons, Jean-Baptiste and Benoît Bachelet. I admire their finesse and harmony. Whilst one has to peer through their heterogeneous state of malolactic, they augur 2021s that took the challenges of the season on the chin and came up trumps.